They have a holiday called what???

'Boy Shooting' is the literal translation of Knabenschiessen, a holiday specific to the city of Zurich. German speakers who are unfamiliar with the holiday, or those who get the automatically translated web page for the event from google, are taken aback when seeing signs advertising the event. The event falls on the 2nd weekend of September and even spills over onto the following Monday - schools are closed all day and offices are closed in the afternoon.

By now, you have probably figured out that 'boy' is the subject, not the object, of this succinctly named holiday. This was a great relief to Isaac and Elliot, who thought they may have to take cover for the weekend (I just made this up, but one might imagine someone had this fear at some point). It seems this holiday was developed as a marksmanship contest for boys (originally, but now extended to girls as well) ages 13 to 17. Who would have thought -- peaceful, neutral Switzerland, not in war for hundreds of years -- grooming dead eye marksman with contests for kids. Sounds more rural southern US than northern Swiss. Of course, I think every male in Switzerland must serve some time in the military, and it might not hurt to have some interest in military skills such as shooting before this mandatory service.

The boys and I are off to the festival on a sunny Saturday - I'll give you an update of the festivities and if they get to shoot a real gun.

Well -- we're back from a day at the festival. It was a good time and leads to some interesting observations. It was a lot of carnival rides like in the United States - a lot of the same rides though a few novel things like you could ride an ATV. The carnival workers were very similar to those you'd find at local carnivals in the U.S. , only the carnival workers wear birkenstocks. Loud, mostly American, music blasted from speakers at each ride.

After the rides, we actually got to see some of the kids shooting. After donning military green earplugs, we all walked into the shooting gallery which was about 200 yards wide and had slots for about 50 to 60 shooters. The gallery is open, with all shooters aiming at targets in a green field with distances ranging from 10 meters to 100 meters. The freaky thing was seeing this cue of pimply 13 to 17 year olds, wearing their cool clothes and trying to act cool, walk up to their shooting station for the event.

These are no little air or pellet guns that you see at carnival games - these guns are automatic rifles. The butt of the rifle looks like an open triangle and the front is mounted on a little bi-pod (4th gun down at this webpage). There was a big clip of ammunition attached to the right side and each slot had an adult that loaded the gun and assisted the child in setting up their shoot. The kids lie down at an incline, prop the rifle but against their shoulder, and aim. Some wear a cover over one eye to improve their aim.

They take their time and, across the width of the shooting gallery -- one hears intermittent 'pops'. After most shots, particularly the first few, the adult pulls around a monitor positioned near the prone teenager that reveals a live picture of the target and where their bullet landed. the teenager than returns to their task.

The teenagers reflected the diversity of the Swiss population and would be somewhat difficult to distinguish from a group of U.S. teenagers. I saw pimply 13 year olds wearing baggy sweatshirts and jeans; hip-hop adoring teenagers with baggy pants and bandanas under their baseball caps; and even well manicured young women squeezing off rounds of high-powered rifle rounds in a measured manner. When their turn is over, and they have spent their allotted ammunition, their stand up and the adult helper printed out something -- likely a summary of their performance -- and handed it to the teenager. The teenager takes this to a central table where they receive either a form or a box with some type of reward. They then slide across the chain behind which the general crowd stands and move back into the ocean of Zurich teenagers waiting their turn to in this uncommon coming-of-age experience. Sometime on Monday, they will determine the best marksman, who will go down in the record for perpetuity.

Some of my thoughts wondered to other parts of the world, where teenagers and younger children take up arms out of necessity. While I grew up in a rural culture where many people liked hunting, our family never partook. We did have a shotgun, but I was frankly afraid of it, even though I appreciated the rabid skunks and raccoons that were removed though its force. Needless to say, the images of 'boy shooting' will not fade soon.